Report

Expressing grave concern on the continued arresting of Muslim youth in the name of countering terrorism, Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umari, president Jamaat-e-Islami Hind urged the Government of India to stop the whole on-going act of injustice and release all innocent persons with immediate effect and give them reasonable compensation. He was addressing a press meet in the capital on May 5. He also declared that the Jamaat will launch a nationwide campaign against the arresting of Muslim youth.

He said, “The Government is not adopting fair conduct in this regard despite Muslims’ continuous demand to stop it. In spite of showing sympathy with the innocents, the government starts a new campaign of nabbing innocent Muslims in terror cases. Its recent episode is the arresting of journalist Mohammed Ahmed Kazmi and putting hurdles by the government agencies in his way to get bail.”

On the issue of 25 years old anti-Muslim Hashimpura massacre by the police, the president of Jamaat said it is a sad reality that a long period has passed but still the victims haven’t got justice. He expressed hope that present UP Samajwadi Party government will seriously consider this issue and take all such steps which can give justice to the victims on the one hand and prosecute the police, PAC and other perpetrators on the other.

On violation of rights of Assamese Muslims, Maulana Umari expressed concerns on the news about removing Muslim voters’ names from the voters list and notifying them after preparing new lists under “D” Voters (those whose citizenship is doubtful) plan. He demanded the government to stop violating the rights of Muslim citizens.

The Jamaat chief said the whole Muslim community viewed with concern the government’s move to make registration of all marriages compulsory. He asserted that the decisions taken in the All India Muslim Personal Law Board’s (AIMPLB) recent Mumbai convention (Apr 20-22), represented the opinions and feelings of Indian Muslims. He suggested the government to consider AIMPLB’s decisions while enacting a code in this regard.

As for the Naxal problem, Maulana Umari said, “The situation, born out of the incident of abduction of Chhattisgarh’s Sukma Collector Alex Paul Menon and Orissa’s BJD MLA Jhina Hikaka is worrying the country.” He called on the government to ensure the rights of tribals and draw policies based on realities regarding Naxalites and Maoists.

On the situation prevailing in the Middle East, Maulana Umari said, “Israel is continuously committing atrocities against all Palestinians; even the world community is ignoring the hunger strikes of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The efforts of the United Nations for ceasefire in Syria have yielded no result. The UN-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan tour has also failed. The Syrian government is committing outrages against its people and protesters. He called on all Muslim countries to come out to resolve these two major issues by united and sincere efforts.

He strongly condemned the act of desecrating the Holy Qur’ān by an American state of Florida’s Pastor Terry Jones. He said, “The Pastor once again hurt the whole Muslim community by burning the sacred pages of the Qur’ān and the silence of US administration is tragic.” He asserted, “It is the appeal of all Indian Muslims and its justice-loving people that the US government should prevent its communally frenzied persons from committing such an immoral, illegal, and sacrilegious act and should give exemplary punishment if anyone commits this act.”